Dear Not_Now.Soon,

We may differ in our theology, but not in the practical religious conclusions.

You just introduced a new term: "individuals". Can God be divided? I suggest that we stick with "persons" as we did thus far, rather than complicate things further.

The bottom line is that even if we have no agreement on what we are, WE, including YOU and I, have free will.
We also agree that our choices do not escape God.
We also agree that we should repent and turn from our sins towards God.
We also agree that we never lose this one choice - to seek God.

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Dear OzSpen,

I wholeheartedly agree that God is neither Yuyutsu nor OzSpen.
All I was saying is that neither am I any of those, nor are you.

I could go over your biblical quotes one by one if you want and explain why I can accept them within the framework of my theology, but I don't have the time to do so today, nor sufficient time until next Thursday, if you wish to wait.

Yuyutsu,

<<I wholeheartedly agree that God is neither Yuyutsu nor OzSpen. All I was saying is that neither am I any of those, nor are you..>>

With that statement and others, you have violated the law of non-contradiction because it was you who stated: "The ultimate truth is God, that there is nothing but God, that YOU ARE GOD and the world is your playground and you can do with it as you please, but OTHERS ARE ALSO GOD...", Posted by Yuyutsu, Tuesday, 6 November 2018 11:21:59 PM

<<I could go over your biblical quotes one by one if you want and explain why I can accept them within the framework of my theology, but I don't have the time to do so today, nor sufficient time until next Thursday, if you wish to wait.>>

There is no point as you promote syncretism of Hinduism and Christianity and dealing with my 'biblical quotes' will produce only another mixture of syncretism, in which I have no interest.

Why? "Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me" (Isaiah 46:9).
The one God is revealed in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures.

Dear OzSpen,

There is no contradiction: What You and I and everyone else truly are, is God, not "Yuyutsu" or "OzSpen".

I respect your wishes not to discuss any further and wish you well. May God speed your blessings.

To Yututsu.

You agree with those three conclusion? That's good! I'm not suprised by that agreement, based on your previous comments, but glad for it none the less.

However. Here is my line of thought (so far).

Ask 5 people their opinion on any subject, and you will get at least 5 different opinions. But to discern what is true and what is not, is a skill worth pursuing. One method I recommend is to keep things simple enough to not out think your observations, and your experiences. Those are my first defense against philosophies that are in error.

In the context of free will, that means to not try to distance yourself from the parts of you that make you, you. Body, soul, intellect, emotions, personality, experience, behavior, habits, and ideals. All of these are part of you, but there are things that you usually don't (or can't) change. Your body for one is yours, even if your personality changes with age or your intellect changes with education and experience. With this simple observation, the truth of us all being one person, one identity, or if we are all together and the same can be tested against. If it is true, then it will stand the observations that are in any of us. If it is not true then our observations (as simple as they are) will break down even the most complex philosophy.

(Continued)

(Continued)

For us all being one. My observation is that I don't know anyone else's thoughts but my own. And often enough, I'm surprised by another's thoughts or actions. Saying or doing things I never thought of. In this humbling and inspiring realization I realize that I am not someone else, and they are not me. The same has occured in my spiritual journey, with God answering or just responding to a prayer in ways I was not expecting. Showing that as well as not being you nor you being me, I am also not God. Part of that conclusion leads to you not being God either, nor God just being something I imagined up.

Though this method of simple observations requires a vast amount of experiences to truely test any philosophy and sift out what's in error among them, and what might be true within them. So the first line of defense requires a person to listen to their own experiences as well as listen and consider the experiences of others as well.

A second.approach would be to make sure you understand the philosophy as it really is, and you didn't test it unfairly by misrepresenting it. But that approach of understanding it correctly, is second to keeping it simple enough to allow it to be challenged and tested by observations and experience.

Dear Not_Now.Soon,

Scripture confirms that our common experience is of being a human, limited and mortal, separate from God and from all others. However, it tells us that we face a great illusion (Sanskrit "maya"="that which is not"), that what we experience is born of our identification with our mind and we must therefore not trust our senses and mind. Scripture then outlines the path to overcome this illusion and realise our true identity, which is God.

As our history and situations differ, the particulars of the path, of religion, differ from one person to another, as well as the theologies that explain it, but the main principles remain and if I need to summarise them in one word, it would be "goodness".

«My observation is that I don't know anyone else's thoughts but my own.»

Isn't this itself a thought?

It's not surprising to find this type of thought within any given mind/brain because it's an essential mechanism of self-preservation: not your own self-preservation, but of the part of our minds which we call 'ego'.

Now imagine: As God you would be simultaneously aware of all thoughts that occur within trillions of minds/brains, yet the content of those thoughts will nearly always go along the lines of: "I don't know anyone else's thoughts but my own".

Convincing... but like the mythical serpent, no true!

I'm all for simplicity, but by listening to the serpent (allegory for the mind), rather than directly to God, we in fact complicate things. Like all bad habits, they seem simpler to maintain... until we kick the habit and say "Oh, how I used to complicate my life!".

«the parts of you that make you, you. Body, soul, intellect, emotions, personality, experience, behavior, habits, and ideals»

This is what your ego seduces you to believe, but it is false: all the above keep changing, yet you still are!

Your body for example used to be a baby, then a toddler, a boy/girl, a youth, an adult,... and now is old and wrinkly, but you are still you and none of that changed who you are.